4/12/2025
By Mary Rizzuti and Ryan Funsch
Today’s ever-changing business world and current labor shortage are prompting organizations to rethink their recruitment strategies and improve the odds that they have the right talent in the right roles. To accomplish this, organizations of all types and sizes are clarifying their job architecture and, more specifically, developing and enhancing their competency models.
What Are Competency Models and Job Architecture?
Related but separate tools, a job architecture encompasses the big picture and provides a structured framework for job roles, career paths, and compensation structures, while a competency model drills down on the attributes and characteristics needed for each position level.
A thoughtful and deliberate job architecture provides transparency in roles, a tie to salary structures, and opportunities for career growth, while a competency model defines the knowledge, skills, and behaviors required of the person filling a position. By clearly outlining these competencies, organizations can create a standardized approach to hiring, developing, and retaining talent.
Smaller organizations may believe they do not need a formal job architecture or competency model, as positions tend to be hybrid and evolve as the organization grows. However, having these tools will help to refine roles, promote equitable pay, and enable employees to plan their careers within the organization.
On the other hand, mid-sized to large organizations will benefit from both a job architecture and competency models, as they provide bases for recruiting, career progression, and workforce planning. And as a competency model provides this roadmap for growth and advancement, it enables managers and employees to understand what is expected at all levels.
Benefits of Implementing a Competency Model
Although a challenging and time-consuming undertaking, a well-designed competency model provides recruiters with more accurate requirements for their job postings and allows current employees to understand their career progression opportunities and the expectations associated with each position level. They also provide managers and leaders with a clear understanding of the competencies required to advance their subordinates through their careers within the organization.
Competency models provide an array of benefits, including:
- Improved talent acquisition: Clearly defined competencies help recruiters identify and attract the right candidates. Additionally, in today’s world, organizations are increasingly more likely to value experience and skill over a college degree.
- Clear career progression: Employees understand the skills they need to advance within the organization.
- Structured performance reviews: Employees will be reviewed on the competencies required for their position level, creating an objective evaluation process for managers to identify skill gaps.
- Strategic workforce planning: A strategic competency model allows for quick adaptation to market and industry changes and helps leaders make informed decisions about succession planning and business strategy. In addition, leveraging employee competencies allows for workforce upskilling and transferring talent when and where it’s needed.
How to Build a Competency Model
It’s crucial that your organization’s competency model is aligned with its functional areas and hierarchy. When creating your competency model, be sure to include the following:
- Define business objectives: Align your competency model with your company’s strategy, growth plans, and workforce needs.
- Identify job families and functions: Competency models can be unique to functional areas for the transfer of skill sets. Positions can be grouped into functional areas/departments based on similar skills, duties, and career paths.
- Streamline job levels: Identify standard job levels that differentiate roles based on experience, impact, autonomy, and leadership (i.e., coordinator, specialist, manager, director, vice president).
- Assess job content: Job descriptions should be updated for each role. Determine whether responsibilities, qualifications, required experience and education, and reporting relationships accurately reflect the current role – and adjust when necessary.
- Develop career ladders: Define career progression opportunities within and across job families to encourage growth and the transfer of skills within the organization.
Strategies for Effectively Communicating Competency Models to Your Team
It’s essential that senior leadership and management buy into the competency model before rolling it out to employees. They are the role models of the organization, and this will reinforce the culture. Managers must also be trained to support the model and relay information to their employees.
When rolling out a competency model to staff, there must be clear communication on why it is being introduced and the benefits to employees and the organization. For example, presenters may use real-world examples to demonstrate a career progression opportunity. Additionally, the company should be prepared to offer training workshops to explain the model and how it can be used in career planning and development, especially if the organization plans on incorporating the competencies into its performance review process.
Importance of Having a Competency Model
A competency model is an important tool with many benefits: it can engage employees, align skills to the organization’s roles, and support career growth. Additionally, as the labor market remains uncertain, organizations that have a competency model will have a competitive advantage over those that don’t by having a framework that is agile and prepared for the future.
